The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-04-28
RALEIGH'S SOLID BOOM.
NOT NOISY. NOR BIG AS BIRMING.
HAM'S, BUT SURE.
Ride on the Street Cars..The UncOm.
pIeted Governors MansiOn..Rich Men
for Governor, &c.

hALEIGH, ~ u, April 20, 1SS7-l eS-
terday afternoon, the days work finished,
l looked from my Office window and see
ing street car approaching, | hailed it
and was soon jolting towards the suburbs
OF the city. l had been reading about the
great booms of other Southern cities
most OF which ''booms'' are, as Webster
defines them, "a hollow sound from an
empty barrer'-and l wanted to see for
myself II Raleigh was. not on sure, strong
and solid boom. l could get to the street
car only by climbing over piles of pave
ment stones, with which sidewalks are
being broadened, and jumping across a
big ditch in the middle of the street in
which the pipes are being laid for the new
water works These two things of them
selves, thought |, indicate at least re-
lationship, not further than second cousin,
to sure enough boom. Before leaving
Fayetteville street | noticed that the front
of the building occupied by F. A. Watson
| had been torn down and was being le-
placed by new modern front. A stran-
| ger coming to Raleigh is sure to notice, and
not be agreeably impressed with the old
time slanting roofs of many of the stores
on Fayetteville street. In the past year,
| two OF them have been modernized, and a
small office and ungainly building on
Fayetteville street has been replaced with
handsome store, occupied by Norris &
| Carter. Nearly opposite the Marlborough
| House, still on Fayetteville street, ex-
cavations have been made and on that
| unsightly corner there wall soon be erected,
by Mr. Stanhope Pullen, hotel that will
have all the modern improvements, and
will be, so l am told, the prettest and
most elegant hotel east of Ashevile On
this street l must not fail to note the great
| improvement of the Hotel Florence, now
conducted by Mr. A. j. Cooke.
Riding on-or rather jolting on, for the
street cars have a jolting like movement,
which | confess is agreeable to me, al
though objected to by many-I leave be-
hind me the towering Capitol building
which in the lengthenins evening shadows
looks even more massive than it is, and
the old residences, and ride up Blount
street.-the Fifth Avenue of Raleigh Here
are more handsome residences than in any
other part of the city-and they have all
been built in comparatively recent years.
On the vacant lots remaining on this pop
ular street, new houses are building
Looking from the car window across to
Person street | see the beginning of the
large new Graded School building which
will be ready for occupancy by next Fall
There is not any ''boom" in building now
little is said of what is going on-but
here and there noted that carpenters are
at work, chiefly engaged in building cot
tages.
Raleigh Is not overmodeSt and talks
enough about itself, l reckon, but if there
had been as much substantial progress in
many another place | could name, the
''hurrahs" and the cry of ''bOoming"
would go up to the clouds, and you could
hear of little else. Some people puff them
selves too much and others are too modest
| don't think Raleigh is on either extreme
1t has confidence in its own future and its
own prosperity and talks about it, but
don't give its neighbors an over dose of
self praise.
The ride was pleasant. The signs of
improvement encouraged me to hope and
expect. big things for the Capital. The
jolting gave me good appetite for supper.
The getting on and off the car of men,
women and children, gave me an oppor-
tunlty of studying human nature, a study
| always pursue with keen interest. The
greatest study of mankind is man." and
there is no better college to matriculate in
this branch of learning than street car.
AS passed by the Governors Mansion
"a great, big, ungainly mass of brick. |
said to a gentleman who sat opposite,
1AC VI IuO lSldtuIC W Ildhc
an appropriation to finish the mansion
will prevent Gov. Scales occupying it..
EYES," lie responded, land likewise his
successor"
The mansion stands uncompleted, with
planks nailed over the doors, and must
stand that way until the Legislature of
1889 makes provision for finishing it. The
last Legislature adjourned without ap-
propriating a single dc liar to the building.
Such short-sighted legislation can lay no
claim to wise or practical craftsmanship
From the first was opposed to building
Governors Mansion. see no good reason
for taxing the people to give the Governor
house more than for buying him horse.
In the old Colonial days and in the days be-
fore the war, when all men of note who
visited the Capital 'put up" with the
Governor, there was need of Governors
Mansion. But to day when the Governor
entertains nobody except his personal
friends excepting now and then giving a
dig dinner or tea), and when everybody
stops at hotel, there is no necessity for
Governors Mansion-or Palace" | be-
lieve they used to call it. I don't like
anything about tits name or it's COST
and l would never have voted five cents
to build it; but since so much money has
been spent on it, and SINCE so MANY OF MY
fRlENDS " lAlN T. IN Utltcht ii
sufficient amount to complete it ought to
have been appropriated.
But if l am wrong in my notion that we
ought not to have a Governors Mansion,
| am certain that l am right in taking
the ground that not more than $40, 900 or
ST 900 ought to have been appropriated
for it at first. Then it would already be
completed and man would not have to
be wealthy to afford to be Governor. L
greatly fear the effect of having a mansion
costing-well not less than $50, 900, by
the time it is completed-will beget the
notion that no man ought to be elected
Govt rnor who has not made a fortune
There could be no test for that high posi-
ton that would breed more of evl. in
public life. When men come to elect a
Governor, the pay of that office ought to
be such that no elector or delegate would
think to enquire: Can Mr.. Y.-(a poor
man) afford to take the piace2' The sal
ary of the Governor is too low now; it
ought to be raised.
l hope never to live to see the day in
North Carolina when a mans possessing
money will be an argument in favor of his
election to the gubernatorial chair. The
mansion has already had the effect of
causing men to talk as if they favored
putting in rich man "to dispense the
hospitaltes with lavish hand" We
don't elect a Governor to dispense hospi-
taiities.' We elect him to do certain
hot